Article displays poor reporting

Instead of reporting the panelists’ informed and sophisticated opinions, or the filled-to-capacity Mandel Hall crowd who boisterously engaged with them, it depicted the group as deranged anti-American and anti-Israel activists.

In its usual reactionary mode, the Maroon’s coverage of Thursday’s Gaza talk (“Panelists Probe Gaza Conflict At Mandel Hall Forum,” 1/09/09) distorted the speakers’ and organizers’ intents. Instead of reporting the panelists’ informed and sophisticated opinions, or the filled-to-capacity Mandel Hall crowd who boisterously engaged with them, it depicted the group as deranged anti-American and anti-Israel activists. The Maroon hardly spoke to the student organizers at the Muslim Student Association, opting instead to give two paragraphs to the Chicago Friends of Israel and their absurd, unfair, and unfortunately typical claims of anti-Semitism. These claims preclude any discussion of a political position, and legitimizing them in a news story only encourages the kind of closed-mindedness that so suffocates Israel–Palestine discourse in this country. In the future, I hope to see a nuanced journalism that is more in service of an interested readership.